COVID-19: Bhutan vaccinates over 90% of its eligible population in just seven days

Bhutan has vaccinated more than 90% of its eligible population with the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine within seven days. The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan with a population of 800,000 began administering the second dose of vaccine on July 20. The mass vaccination drive of the country has been praised by UNICEF as "arguably the fastest vaccination campaign to be executed during a pandemic."

Bhutan vaccinates 90 per cent of its population

The Bhutan Health Ministry in a Facebook post said that 90.2% of its eligible population was fully vaccinated. It added that 61.8% of the total population was fully vaccinated. Bhutan started its vaccination drive in April after neighbouring country India sent the first set of 550,000 shots of AstraZeneca vaccines. The country used all the shots to vaccinate its population with the first dose. The vaccination drive received a setback after India a major supplier of the AstraZeneca shot, halted exports due to the rising COVID-19 cases in the country. 

Bhutan however, restarted its vaccination drive last week after it received the Moderna vaccine from the United States under the UN-backed COVAX program. The country received more than 400,000 AstraZeneca shots from Denmark, Croatia and Bulgaria in the last two weeks. It also received some 5,000 shots of the Pfizer vaccine through COVAX. More than 3,000 health workers worked to vaccinate the population of Bhutan. About 1,200 vaccination centres were made across the country to ensure that every adult received the vaccine. 

Dr Sonam Wangchuk, a member of Bhutan’s vaccination task force told The Associated Press that health workers trekked for days through landslides and pouring rain to reach extremely remote villages to administer doses to those who were unable to reach the vaccination centre. According to Bhutan Health Ministry, the country has reported 2,501 COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began. Among them, 2,331 people have recovered while there were 168 active cases in the country. Two persons have died due to the coronavirus in Bhutan. 

IMAGE: AP/PMOBhutan/Facebook

Inputs from AP